A journal of desserts, experiments and learning

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Chocolate

On day 1, I bought a bunch of ripe bananas for granola. By day three they had become soft, black and unloved. You could freeze them and turn them into ice cream, or make banana breadcake. A regular banana will do in a pinch but very ripe bananas will give a really intense banana fragrance.

It feels pretty awesome to make home made marshmallows. Part of the fun is getting to handle them – nothing quite compares in terms of airy-light bounciness. I coated them in pure cocoa powder. The mallow fluff didn’t stick as much as many recipes said they would, I wonder if I did something wrong… They set up beautifully in the fridge after 4 hours, despite being a bit softer than commercial marshmallows. I’d definitely make these again, in other flavor variations. Matcha coating perhaps, or covered in bittersweet chocolate – something that can offset the sweetness.

For my virgin macaron attempt I used the Italian meringue method as it’s supposed to be more stable and had a smaller proportion of sugar compared to other versions. The recipe was quartered to reduce waste keeping in mind the high failure rate of macarons.

Substituting margarine in the cocoa brownies was a bad thing to do. Bad. To save a few dollars? What was I thinking? Slap me with a pink spatula if I ever again threaten to think of such a thing. Little brown rectangles of regret. Understand this, it’s not that they’re not tasty. I just can’t forget how they taste with all butter. It’s like being on a date with with a perfectly nice guy but! There is someone you love and you can’t stop thinking about him.

Hi! I'm from Singapore and working towards becoming a pastry chef. I believe that formal education is not a must, as the internet is full of brilliant and generous minds, and books will fill up most of the remaining gaps. I work hard and learn from my mistakes, if you would like to hire me, or chat about desserts and life, drop me an email at ahboing at gmail dot com :)